


Holly jolly Christmas

by Spaceprincealenko



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Christmas Shopping, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28301733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spaceprincealenko/pseuds/Spaceprincealenko
Summary: Kaidan and Lily wait until the last minute to do their Christmas shopping, chaos enuses
Relationships: Female Shepard & Male Shepard (Mass Effect), Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

"Tell me again why we waited until the last minute?" Kaidan asked as he slumped against the steering wheel while they sat in traffic. They knew why, Kaidan still worked for the Alliance and was at work most the time and with Aiden being the human councilor, he was hardly on Earth and unfortunately he was the only person Lily trusted with Ashley. 

"Because we're bad parents?" Lily replied, as she sipped her iced coffee and looked through the list Ashley made for them.

Kaidan sighed "Sometimes I wish Santa was real."

"Me too, I hate shopping…"

"At least we already bought the doll she really wanted, I doubt we'd be able to get it now."

Lily set the data pad on the dashboard "On Christmas eve? Yeah not likely." 

"Now onto the rest." He said as traffic began to finally move.

"Plus a little extra because we suck." Lily added, shaking her plastic cup, trying to get the last drop of her peppermint mocha.

"That we do." Kaidan agreed as he parked the car, Lily hopping out of the passenger seat as soon as it was unlocked.

"Come on babe, we have toys to buy and other customers to fight!" She called out as she ran ahead of him.

"We aren't fighting anybody Lil!" He called as he caught up to her.

"We are if they're preventing me from giving my baby girl the best Christmas ever." She grabbed a cart and slid it over to him. "You're on cart duty Alenko."

Kaidan sighed "Aye aye ma'am." She had retired but she had a habit of slipping back into commander mode every now and again.

Lily led them through the crowded store to the chaos that was the toy aisle "How mad at me would you be if I used my biotics to clear this out?" She asked Kaidan who was rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands, he already felt exhaustion setting in even though it was still rather early in the day.

"I wouldn't be pleased."

Lily groaned "Fine…" they pushed through the aisle, her attention getting caught by one of the many toys on the shelves. "Is this one of those dolls that does everything a real baby does?" She asked as she looked over the packaging "Gross, it is." 

"Lily you had an actual baby." 

"Yeah and she was cute, this is freaky looking, what kind of parent would-" she heard someone clear their throat next to her and Kaidan let out a long sigh, resting his head on the cart handle.

Lily had faced down a reaper on foot with nothing but a laser pointer but something about this woman was scarier than it was.  
"Since you clearly aren't going to buy it will you hand it over?" The hot-headed part of Lily was mad, she saved the galaxy only to five years later be in a super market getting glared at over a toy but the part of her that loved her daughter knew that her pride wasn't worth ruining Christmas over. 

"Uh right, here you go...ma'am." Lily said tossing the angry women next to her the doll she had been holding, her and Kaidan dashing to the next aisle. 

"Maybe think quieter thoughts next time honey."

Lily nodded, lips pursed together "Yup."

Kaidan picked up the list "So looks like the first thing is….sand?" He looked up at Lily "what does Ash want sand for?"

Lily shook her head "I know what she's talking about." She said, grabbing the end of the cart and leading him over to the proper aisle. "Perfect! The exact one she wanted!" 

"How do you know all this?" Kaidan felt a bit bad he didn't know what his daughter liked but Lily was home with her everyday.

"Because I was her age once and she likes the same toys I did." Lily placed her hand on the box at the same time another parent did and they stared each other down "can I help you sir?" She growled and Kaidan looked down at the list, praying to whatever god out there he wouldn't need to get involved. 

"Would you mind letting go of that, ma'am?" He glared and Kaidan groaned behind her.

"Listen here asshole, I'm the only reason we're still alive to have this argument got it?" Kaidan looked up and saw her glow blue for a brief second "not only that I intend to give my little girl the best Christmas I can, so I highly suggest you let go of it unless you want this to get ugly." Her corneas flashed blue and the man flinched giving her the opportunity to yank the toy away "that's what I thought." 

Lily turned on her heel and tossed the package in their basket "Was that really necessary?" Kaidan asked as she looked over the list.

"Probably not, felt good though."

"I'm sure it did." Lily was a fire cracker and that was the thing that attracted him to her as much as Aiden didn't believe him it was the truth but he hoped for at least one day she'd reign it in a little bit. 

"Next up a doll house." 

"Know what kind?"

Lily chuckled "Kaidan who do you take me for? Of course I know." She looked over the shelf "now luckily they keep them pretty low, usually anyhow." She hummed in concentration "where-" she looked up and saw the one she had been looking for and stomped her food in frustration "Well fuck me," she looked over at Kaidan "I'm too short, babe can you help me?"

"Yeah, watch a the cart for me." They quickly traded places and Kaidan reached up, carefully pulling it down, bringing biotics into the mix just enough to make sure he didn't drop it. 

Lily swooned "My hero!" 

Kaidan smiled and rolled his eyes as he set it in the cart "Anything for you my love." Lily giggled as they shared a quick kiss.

"Two for two, we are killing it Alenko." She stopped in her tracks as they walked past the stuffed animals, gasping "know what else she needs though?" She asked rhetorically as she trotted off, her heels clicking on the tile floor, leaving Kaidan standing alone in the middle of the store.

"This." Lily said as she came back with a giant white, stuffed bear that was almost as big as she was "see, it lights up." She reached around its stomach, pressing the button on its paw and it lit up, slowly switching colors. "We can even get a giant bow for its neck, just to wrap it up a bit."

"I think she'll love it."

"Oh I know she will." Lily said confidently as she walked ahead of him "next is a tea set."

"And I'm assuming this princess costume is to go with it?" He asked, slowly catching up to her.

"Bingo!" Lily browsed the selection they had and much to her surprise they still had quite a few to pick from "I don't want anything breakable…" she muttered to herself as she hiked the bear up on to her shoulder so she could see better. "Hmmm well…" she picked up a pink picnic basket, holding it up for Kaidan to see as she continued to look through them "think she'll like this one?"

Kaidan brought the cart over and took the set from her, opening it "Oh yeah, she'll love it."

Lily stood up "Right? It's cute and pink, what else could you possibly need from a tea set?"

"They're just gonna be filled with water anyway huh?"

Lily scoffed "Kaidan please, we're classy, we use chocolate milk."

Kaidan snorted as he closed it back up setting it in the cart "Of course, my apologies." 

"Think we're spoiling her too much?" Lily asked as they went to look for a princess costume.

Kaidan shook his head "Nah, just only child syndrome."

"Ha! Can't relate, Aiden and I had different tastes but we got like five presents each, which in the scheme of things wasn't that bad."

"I think I got the same amount as Ashley, my parents over compensated because they felt bad about the whole biotic thing."

"Fair…" she glanced at Kaidan "were you mad at them?"

Kaidan shook his head "Not really, I wasn't broody and angsty about it until high school." Lily nodded as she looked at the ground "so we'll have that to look forward to with Ash."

"I didn't say I was talking about Ashley."

Kaidan rubbed her back, soothingly "You weren't? My bad." 

Lily glanced at him "I hate you."

"I know honey, I love you too." They browsed the princess outfits "besides, I'm sure things will be different when she's older, a human biotic did save the galaxy after all."

"And they better not forget it! I'm totally letting her use that card."  
"What card?" He asked as he tossed a plastic tiara with the rest of the gifts.

"The 'my mom is Commander Shepard' card." Lily answered as she picked out a dress.

"That's a good card to have." They turned to each other, holding different dresses, shrugging before tossing them both in the cart.

"Can never have too many sparkly pink dresses." Lily said, walking away and grabbing a pair of matching shoes on her way out. "This is turning out much better than anticipated." 

"Agreed and you only got into one argument."

"I know! Maybe we aren't awful parents after all." 

"Now we just have to wrap everything."

Lily's shoulders sagged "The best part…"

Kaidan laughed "You'll be fine honey."

"But the tape, it messes up my manicure." She whined.

"I'll handle the actual wrapping, you're better at tying bows than me."

"We make such a great team." 

"We always have."


	2. Chapter 2

"Perfect! I think they're still out." Lily said as they pulled up to their house.

"How long do you think we have?" Kaidan asked as he hurried out of the car.

"Not sure but we're used to working under pressure huh?" She asked as she started unloading the car.

"I'd certainly hope so." Kaidan grabbed the heavier presents, following Lily inside. 

They set everything in the living room and Kaidan ran to get the wrapping paper "Message Aiden to see when they'll be home!" He called from the closet.

"On it!" Lily quickly typed out a message on her omni-tool, sending it just as Kaidan came back, arms full of supplies. 

"Okay, I got ribbons, paper and of course, tape."

"Perfect." Lily grabbed the bear and a giant ribbon, carefully tying a pink bow around his neck "well that's one present done."

"I figure we put the smaller ones under the tree and the bigger ones we pretend Santa brought."

"So you aren't just a pretty face." She teased as she dragged the bear away. 

"Didn't you once say you kept me around for your morale?"

"And the rest of the crew," she said as she walked back into the room "you had quite the fan club."

"Is that right?" He asked as he began wrapping another gift.

"Yeah, I had to keep that shit in check." She sat down next to him, looking through the bows. 

Kaidan snorted "I'm sure." 

"You did! I had to reveal our relationship just to keep them away." Lily said as she slapped a bow on the newly wrapped doll house.  
"Well it seemed to have worked." Kaidan said with a grunt as he picked up the large box.

"I'd certainly hope so." Lily's omni-tool dinged and flashed orange "Aiden messaged me back!" She called to him as she read it over.

"What did he say?" Kaidan called back as he did his best to make sure he didn't fall carrying the giant box up the narrow staircase.

"He took Ashley to lunch, should be a while." 

Kaidan sighed in relief "Thank god." He jogged downstairs after hiding the present to wrap more gifts. "We should be done by the time they're back."

"In theory." She took the costumes they got her and folded them. "Should we just wrap these with the tea set?"

"Don't see why not." 

Lily placed the clothes on top of the basket, tying it together with a ribbon."There, mother of the year."

Kaidan chuckled "Was there ever any doubt?"

"Yes, I waited until the very last second to do any of this."

"So did I, guess that makes me a bad dad?" He asked, knowing what her answer would be.

"No!" She said whipping around to face him, Lily didn't have have an example of what a father should be like since she never met her's so as far as she was concerned Kaidan just being in their daughter's life was enough to win him father of the year. 

"Okay, then you aren't a bad mom, we just got distracted." Kaidan knew Lily held herself to impossible standards and no matter what he tried telling her she still agonized over it. 

"Fine…" she muttered, her brow furrowed.

"Good." 

"You're too sweet sometimes, I can't stand you."

"I know honey." He said as he kissed her hand, sometimes she liked being grumpy for the sake of being grumpy and it was something he was happy Ashley hadn't inherited. "On the bright side, we only have one more gift and we're done."

This time Lily smiled at him "I have something for you."

"Oh yeah?" 

"Yeah," Lily pushed everything aside and climbed on his lap "it has to wait until Ashley goes to bed though."

"Oh? Well now I'm really excited."

Lily chuckled, leaning in to kiss him, "It'll be worth the wait."


End file.
